Boulder resident Richard F. Schaden has long been the wearer of many hats in the areas of business and philanthropy.
In addition to co-founding Quiznos, the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, Escape Dynamics and Consumer Capital Partners — an investment firm behind concepts such as SmashBurger and Tossa — Schaden also serves as the Schaden Chair for Experiential Learning at the CU Law School and a board member for the Ocean Preservation Society and Alfalfa’s.
Schaden, an aeronautical engineer and trial lawyer, spoke briefly with the Camera this week about his latest endeavors and business ventures.
The following has been edited for clarity and space.
1. What are the company’s growth plans for the Tossa concept that was first tested in Boulder?
I just have a new presentation that was made to me by our people downtown in Denver. It’s leaning more toward the pizza and less toward some of the other things. We’ll have two more units in Denver in about three months.
Of course SmashBurger’s doing great (in Boulder). That’s one of the best performing (stores) in the system out of 200.
2. Speaking to your business endeavors, why have you gotten behind these concepts and companies?
I always tells people I was an aviator and trial lawyer all my life and I got dragged into business by my kids, kicking and screaming.
I’ve been in the restaurant business up to my ears for a lot of years.
We’ve also got (Broomfield-based aerospace technology firm) Escape Dynamics … the bike race was big this year.
Then I’m involved with the (University of Colorado) law school and engineering school. Law has been very good to me and I feel very strongly about social issues and access to the courts.
3. What change do you hope to effect with you involvement with the CU schools?
In the law school we call the chair that we have the experiential law chair, and … (former dean) David H. Getches, I and Judge Jim Carrigan, we knew we needed to get students into the courtroom at the trial level and talking to clients, talking to lawyers and talking to clerks.
For the engineering school, all summer we (at Escape Dynamics) had eight engineering students working in the rocket propulsion area. It looks like we’ll probably end up hiring two of the eight. It’s good for them and its good for us in terms of a source for new talent.
4. What changes are coming to Laudisio (a Boulder restaurant of which you’re a co-owner)?
We’re gonna call it The L. As founder (Antonio Laudisio) retires and moves on, they wanted to use the family name for some other things. We went back to that. As far as the menu goes and décor, there’s really going to be no changes.
The head chef … and a couple other people were all trained by Tony.
I also really hope to clean up the (Twenty Ninth Street) mall a little bit. … I’m going to meet with Art Copolla (CEO of mall owner Macerich) as we’ve exchanged some letters. We’re going to meet and discuss that at a very high level soon.
As for The L, we’ve got to put some clean-up money into it. Our typical rebuild is about five years. The idea is not to change it, just to kind of spark it up a little bit.
5. What’s next up your sleeve?
We have a new concept opening on 15th and Larimer right above the Comedy Works called Tom’s Urban24, an upscale diner that will be open 24 hours. It should be open in the next two to four weeks. The plan with that is to open two more in the next six months, one on the West Coast.
That’s one of the newest ones. We’ll have alterations in Tossa, leaning a little more in the build-your-own-pizza concept.
I have to choose my battles a little bit. I will certainly be very involved in The L and make sure that works out well. … Probably in the next 12 months I’m going to be doing The L, legal work, I’ve got to do some active things for the advisory board for the engineering school. We’re also building a new world-class lab in Broomfield for testing materials.
— Alicia Wallace
